That is the name of Henry Murger’s novel, which lays at the basis of one of the most amazing opera actions ever. We called the same name some lateral stories of this legendary performance, which premiered twenty years ago on the Nosovibirsk stage and which is coming back now, “all the same, always new”.
On 8th June – Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” on the main stage of NOVAT. The reestablished performance, with the stage designed a la Paris, will start Veronika Jioeva’s grand festival in the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet theatre. Prima donna will play one of her favorite parts – Mimi, and Marcel will be performed by a guest star, a world famous baritone – Vasily Ladyuk. The fourth birth of the performance is being prepared by Alexey Stepanyuk, a director from St. – Petersburg, who has already once brought this performance back to life seven years ago.
Twenty years ago this performance rocked the theatre world. “The Novosibirsk production of “La Boheme” was admitted as one of the most outstanding events of the theatre – wrote the “Kommersant” newspaper back in the day – it was probably the first time when the opera artists acted dramatically – they existed in motion, not in stasis. That was a small revolution”.
At the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet theatre “La boheme” was staged in 1997 by a French director Benedict Ardiles, who already had a staging experience at the famous “Comedy Francaise” and already known in Russia for her production of Jean Cocteau’s “The Double-Headed Eagle” (Theatre of Russian Army, 1991). With all respect to the content-oriented rehearsals with Benedict, we must admit that her work on the “powney” was a whole different topic, which main theme was reverence for the word and for the text.
The 53rd season was opened on 10th October with “La Boheme” conducted and directed by Alexey Lyudmilin. The designer Igor Grinevich created an exceptional setting of Paris 1830s for that production (the mansard roof turns into café “Momus” in Latin quarter, then into a pub near the Paris outpost), which title roles were performed by Tatiana Vorojtsova (Mimi), Vasily Gorshkov (Rodolfo), Alexander Lebedev (Marcello), Marina Efanova (Musetta).
This opera settled down in the theatre’s repertoire for a nice period of time, setting the ground for a number of vivid and quite memorable debuts and undergoing several renovation steps. The first rebirth happened in 2006, when the conductor Teodor Currentzis took the musical direction in his hands first for the concert version, which was brought to the big hall of the Moscow Conservatory and later for the full scale performance. The concert version, presented in the capital was critically acclaimed.
“You can’t help but admire the freshness of the performance – wrote the Moscow media. – Suddenly you detect the solid staccatos in the episodes, the passages got curlier, and the arioso found its brisk breath. The tempo fluttered, following the stage action, therefore when the time was coming for the massive lyric tune, it began to grow like a mushroom”.
In 2010 the new version of “La boheme” was proposed by Alexey Stepanyuk, who made the performance sparkle with the new colors. In the next couple of days we will tell you some new stories, state some new facts about this significant story, loved by several generations of artists, conductors and viewers. In addition to that, you must know that this performance has its own touring history.
Scenes from the Life of “La Boheme”. To be continued…
“La Boheme. Renovation” premiere featuring Veronika Jioeva and Vasily Ladyuk will be held on 8th June. Tickets are available on the website and at the theatre box office.
